To the Editor:

So, Russia interferes with the U.S. election by some hacking. The U.S. government thinks it must punish Russia for interfering in our electoral system. Has this country no power of self-reflection?

It has been only a little over a decade ago that the U.S. invaded another country, hunted down its leader and hung him. The U.S. has interfered in the politics of countries on every continent with military force that has cost millions of innocent lives, not some hacking. I can go back to the U.S. sending a cost millions of innocent lives, not some hacking.

I can go back and to the U.S. sending a military force into Russia to reverse the Russian revolution that had ended in Communist rule. The list is long. Has the U.S. forgotten Korea, China, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, Angola, the Congo, Libya, Chili, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, Cuba, Granada, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and now Syria.

More? Not so long ago in history the U.S., without asking anybody, annexed Hawaii. On one occasion in the campaign Hillary criticized Russia for hacking, interfering with the U.S. electoral system and then a little later saying “Assad must go.” It’s difficult to miss the disconnect right there in one brief occasion. Did the speaker miss it?

To listen to authorities build a case against Russia because they invaded Ukraine and killed people and accuse them of human rights abuses seems to me the U.S. is doing what Trump does. When Trump is slights he turns on the person and accuses them good and hard of what he is guilty of. And no one seems to notice when the U.S. uses the same tactic. The hypocrisy is so blatant. Also, from all the news coverage, one would think the U.S. doesn't hack!

I think the greatest danger to the U.S. is its lack of ability to make an honest assessment of its own path and be the kind of nation that lives up to what it keeps saying it is, although U.S. actions prove otherwise. What happens to the U.S. is the natural result of the choices the U.S. has made and will make. The U.S. needs to stop blaming others for its problems. Obama and Trump, “Stop whining,” when Trump was declaring the system was rigged when he was behind. My advice to the U.S. about Russian hacking is “stop whining.” But it seems the U.S. is willing to have another Cold War with Russia. I think the Russians leaned from the first one, but I am afraid the U.S. didn't. I am counting Russia to avoid it.

Putin did not put Trump in office. The electoral college system, gerrymandered districts, and the corrupting influence of money in U.S. politics did. Putin rightfully points out that Congress went Republican and asks if he is supposed to be responsible for that too. It’s time to fix this country’s problems instead of meddling in everybody else’s internal affairs. It doesn't mean isolationism; it doesn't mean trade, cooperation in positive developments, cultural, tourist and student exchanges instead of political, and military interventions.

It’s sad that the Western world inherited the Greek attitude toward war, “Might Makes Right.” The U.S. needs to get over it; the European countries are certainly that way.

Ina Brockriede

Potsdam